LIFE OF WILSON. cxxxiii 



ceived.* I was at that time on the point of setting out for St. 

 Louis; but being detained a week by constant and heavy rains, 

 and considering that it would add four hundred miles to my 

 journey, and detain me at least a month; and the season being 

 already far advanced, and no subscribers to be expected there, 

 I abandoned the idea, and prepared for a journey through the 

 wilderness. I was advised by many not to attempt it alone; 

 that the Indians were dangerous, the swamps and rivers almost 

 impassable without assistance, and a thousand other hobgoblins 

 were conjured up to dissuade me from going alone. But I 

 weighed all these matters in my own mind; and attributing a 

 great deal of this to vulgar fears and exaggerated reports, I 

 equipt myself for the attempt. I rode an excellent horse, on 

 which I could depend; I had a loaded pistol in each pocket, a 

 loaded fowling piece belted across my shoulder, a pound of 

 gunpowder in my flask, and five pounds of shot in my belt. I 

 bought some biscuit and dried beef, and on Friday morning, 

 May 4th, I left Nashville. About half a mile from town I ob- 

 served a poor negro with two wooden legs, building himself a 

 cabin in the woods. Supposing that this journey might afford 

 you and my friends some amusement, I kept a particular ac- 

 count of the various occurrences, and shall transcribe some of 

 the most interesting, omitting every thing relative to my Or- 

 nithological excursions and discoveries, as more suitable for 

 another occasion. Eleven miles from Nashville I came to the 

 Great Harpath, a stream of about fifty yards wide, which was 

 running with great violence. I could not discover the en- 

 trance of the ford, owing to the rains and inundations. There 

 was no time to be lost, I plunged in, and almost immediately 

 my horse was swimming. I set his head aslant the current, 

 and being strong, he soon landed me on the other side. As 

 the weather was warm, I rode in my wet clothes without any 

 inconvenience. The country to-day was a perpetual succes- 

 sion of steep hills and low bottoms; I crossed ten or twelve 

 large creeks, one of which I swam with my horse, where he 

 * These drawing's never came to hand. 



